Pistol range in home basement

...when I was about 6 or 7 in the 1960s, my family knew a person in NJ who shot pistols in his own basement and I was allowed to shoot the gun at the target several times.

From what I remember, this gun was a CF revolver and the shots were fired into a paper backstop from about 25 feet.

I'm pretty sure this would not be lawful in my neck of the woods today, but I was wondering if anyone else does this for learning and entertainment.

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Certaindeaf

June 27, 2012, 04:51 PM

Since NJ has had one billion residents for the last four hundred years, I'd say that that was unlawful also. Never know though.

Skribs

June 27, 2012, 04:57 PM

Since NJ has had one billion residents for the last four hundred years, I'd say that that was unlawful also.

What does a billion residents have to do with it being lawful or not?

Certaindeaf

June 27, 2012, 04:59 PM

^
Last I heard it was unlawful to pop a cap in a residential area?

holdencm9

June 27, 2012, 05:04 PM

I wish. That would be cool if you could. But not only is it probably illegal within most cities/towns, most people's typical basement doesn't have adequate ventilation to shoot much more than a few rounds.

Arp32

June 27, 2012, 05:08 PM

The HVAC/ventilation requirements are extreme. that's a big chunk of the construction budget in a "real" indoor shooting range.

Tom488

June 27, 2012, 05:38 PM

There are plenty of townships in NJ that do not have a prohibition on firearms discharge. Firearms discharge is regulated at the local level here.

Zoogster

June 27, 2012, 06:39 PM

It would also have to comply with noise ordinances. So if neighbors can hear those scary gunshots, then it would probably be in violation.
You have a simple solution? Mufflers are for bad guys.
No instead you need to sound proof the whole place, not diminish the report of the gun.

Any projectiles leaving the property would likely result in serious penalties or criminal charges, as well as media attention of the psycho with X guns raided by police on charges of ___, _____, ______, (several that don't even apply initially thrown in for good measure as is typical.)
The guy would be known to the public as a crazy psycho before he even got to tell his side once he did anything that brought legal attention.

However if it was sound proofed, had a good backstop for the calibers used, and nobody around was aware, and there was no accidents like self inflicted wounds at the range, it could go both undetected and be legal in some places.

If you were going to research constructing such a thing and the legalities in your jurisdiction you would probably want to do so in a manner that does not let everyone know you will have a gun range in your home.

What does a billion residents have to do with it being lawful or not?

While not a specific legal answer, generally population density leads to greater restrictions on freedom to more easily manage the masses, and because people want to better manage each other and impose what they think others should be doing.
People start to feel entitled to decisions not just about how they live, but about every detail of the masses they are in close proximity to. You get ordinances and home owner's associations as the norm that for example tell you what height the grass can be, what colors you are allowed to paint, what types of vehicles are allowed in driveways, whether you can alter your fence or plant a tree, etc

Likewise they will be into every detail on what and how you can possess and use various objects, especially those they associate with high risk and/or violence. Guns, airguns, things that look too much like a gun, stun guns, pepper spray, pocket knives, pointy sticks, etc
NJ has the highest population density in the nation, and lives up to the expectation of having some of the greatest number of restrictions on its residents.

hso

June 27, 2012, 06:43 PM

I pretty sure this would not be lawful in my neck of the woods today

And why wouldn't it be legal if you had an adequate means of preventing any stray rounds from leaving the range (top, bottom, sides)?

HankB

June 27, 2012, 06:55 PM

I had a pistol range in my basement when I was a kid . . . growing up in Chicago.

I'm also aware of other people who were known (by a select few!) to fire a round or two in their basements.

Must not have been illegal, since neither my Dad nor I were ever ran afoul of law enforcement. ;)

BCRider

June 27, 2012, 07:12 PM

You just didn't get turned in and caught... :D

The need for proper ventilation would pretty much kill such a project. Winter seems like the best time to do such antics when it's too cold outside to go to the outdoor range. But the air movement needed for proper ventilation would likely double or more the cost of keeping the house heated. You need to vent out the shooting gasses. But at the same time you need to replace that air from outside. And unless you're shooting down a fairly small pipe the amount of air that needs to be exchanged is considerable. And since you'd be drawing in frigid outside air you'll want to heat that air up.

atblis

June 27, 2012, 07:15 PM

Vaporized lead compounds everywhere. Yummy.

Zoogster

June 27, 2012, 07:17 PM

Good air ventilation also makes sound proofing more expensive because the ventilation system needs to move lots of air but not let sound escape outside. In a normal ventilation system the vents will be a prime location for strong sound waves to make it outside, and so they need to be adequately improved if you don't want your neighbors knowing you are shooting. That adds more expense.

Larry Ashcraft

June 27, 2012, 07:35 PM

Primer powered, plastic bullets?

Those used to be available, and probably still are. Seems like you just primed the cases and pushed the bullets in by hand. Bullets were reusable.

EddieNFL

June 27, 2012, 08:22 PM

^ Speer sold them in the '70s and '80s. Not sure if that's still the case

GCBurner

June 27, 2012, 08:41 PM

They're still available, I got some from Midway.

Deltaboy

June 27, 2012, 08:42 PM

It been done using those Speer plastic bullets and primers in my Neighbors Barn.

shotgunjoel

June 27, 2012, 08:46 PM

http://www.waxbullet.com/

Lost Sheep

June 27, 2012, 08:50 PM

Primer powered, plastic bullets?

Those used to be available, and probably still are. Seems like you just primed the cases and pushed the bullets in by hand. Bullets were reusable.
Yes, EddieNFL, still available. I saw some at my local Sportsman's Warehouse last year.

Wax bullets (primer powered only) are also very popular. , but you will want to be careful about re-using the wax if it picks up any grit when it hits you backstop. You will have to drill out the primer's flash hole a bit to keep the primers from backing out and then never use those cases for live ammunition again. Some people ream out the primer pocket to fit a shotgun primer.

Hot glue extruded into a bullet mold works, too. Some brands of hot glue sticks are already sized for 45s. Just cut them all to the same length and you have wadcutters.

The power of a primer is not to be taken lightly. A wax bullet powered by a primer alone will put a decent dent in a steel exterior door and put a real hurt on flesh, even in moderately heavy clothing. Let alone bare flesh or eyes.

Lost Sheep

MARKMALL

June 27, 2012, 09:19 PM

Probably about 20 years ago we shoot 22's in my BIL basment. I have modified 38 spl. cases that take a shot shell primer and fire a rubber bullet.

Owen Sparks

June 27, 2012, 09:19 PM

A gunshot from inside a house is really hard to recognize. After the sound passes through exterior walls it just makes a dull thump. Your neighbors would probably never hear it unless they were right outside and even then they would not recognize it as gunfire. As long as you kept your mouth shut no one would suspect anything. I hammer and bang on stuff all the time at my house and no one ever comes to see what the noise is.

That being said, indoor lead contamination would be the real problem. It would be VERY expensive to install a proper ventalation system. That alone makes a basement range impractical unless you could afford to shoot copper bullets or some other non-toxic training ammo.

oneounceload

June 27, 2012, 09:20 PM

And why wouldn't it be legal if you had an adequate means of preventing any stray rounds from leaving the range (top, bottom, sides)?

Because in many locales it is illegal to discharge a firearm within certain boundaries (such as city limits)

Lead exposure in a poorly ventilated basement is a bad idea health-wise; even the components of the primers in a wax bullet scenario can be detrimental

PBR Streetgang

June 27, 2012, 09:36 PM

when I lived in NJ years ago I'd shoot in the back yard and the local police would call just to check if it was me shooting.

Another place we broke a hole underground in a basement wall,installed 25 foot of 24 inch sewer pipe in the ground with vents a light at the far end and a electric track to travel the targets on.Was a great place to play on a cold rainy day.

Shooting there today will bring out the swat team.

BTW Nyclad bullets were made to cut down on the lead in the air.

Meta

June 27, 2012, 09:56 PM

Wax bullets or not, the vast majority of lead exposure from shooting comes from the primer. Not a good idea to be shooting indoors anything more than rarely if ever without ventilation and building designed for shooting.

Stevie-Ray

June 27, 2012, 10:11 PM

A gunshot from inside a house is really hard to recognize. After the sound passes through exterior walls it just makes a dull thump. Your neighbors would probably never hear it unless they were right outside and even then they would not recognize it as gunfire. As long as you kept your mouth shut no one would suspect anything. I hammer and bang on stuff all the time at my house and no one ever comes to see what the noise is.
Indeed. Some friends of mine shot their .22 pump Winchester in their basement all the time when I was a kid. Years later, their mother shot and killed herself with a .30-06 when nobody was home. Though I was a mere 2 doors down, I never heard it. Nobody had, except for possibly their next-door neighbor who was nervously looking out the window, according to another neighbor, and when the ambulance showed up, he shut his blinds quickly.

MICHAEL T

June 27, 2012, 10:17 PM

In the late 50's I shot my marlin 39A in our basement a lot. I had a good back stop and fired away. We didn't worry about proper ventilation or all the silly stuff the goverement shoves down our throats to day.
I the 80's I had a house with about a 3 1/2 ' high craw space. Again made up a indoor range had a track to run target back and forth and shot mainly prone
Was a nice subdivision and no body ever said a word . Again never worried about proper ventilation. .
Now I live in country and shoot out side and shoot bigger calibers than just 22's Should I now worry about proper ventilation . I might be causing dirty air in china by shooting in good old Ky. :D

psyopspec

June 27, 2012, 10:36 PM

This is a childhood memory so distant and faded that it's barely there. I was about 12, so we're talking almost 2 decades ago.

My dad used to be a professional cleaner. He would cover things like smoke damage after a fire, clean up after crimes, or clean out someone's house after they passed away. When I was about 12 I helped him with one of the latter; an elderly veteran died and after picking out what they wanted his relatives hired dad to clean out his house before putting it on the market. We spent a weekend hauling things out. As a kid I remember it being a very profound thing to go through an entire house and see an entire lifetime of memories and memento get hauled off. It was a ranch house with a basement that looked very small from the outside. The upstairs only took half a day to clean out, but the basement was a project. It was one long continuous room piled with stuff. When we finally got toward the end of it we found a back stop. I can't remember what it looked like, how big it was, or what it was made of. I just remember being excited about the idea, and my dad shrugging it off as being no big deal (probably to dull any thoughts of doing something similar in our own house).

I also remember the neighborhood, so if I ever want to move back to North Dakota, and to that town in particular, and a certain house is available...

Hardtarget

June 27, 2012, 11:29 PM

When I first started reloading I shot a few rounds in my basement. First were .38 special. I just wanted to see if I really did make ammo that worked. Later I shot a few .30-30. My wife said that was really loud.

I told her..." its a test, only a test" :D

I did shoot a few .22s to boot. Maybe total was thirty rounds.

I still shoot air pistol down there.

Mark

hso

June 27, 2012, 11:33 PM

Lead free ammo is readily available, if more expensive (so goes the price of convenience).

JohnnyK

June 27, 2012, 11:41 PM

a local business here has a 100 yard underground shooting range... he has a business where he fine tunes rifles... that's the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. I agree about the lead exposure...not good... I wouldn't worry much about the sound.

BLACKHAWKNJ

June 28, 2012, 12:42 AM

I used to go shooting in the basement of the house I used to live-in the center of a town in NJ. Nobody ever bothered me, I limited myself to 22s, used to use a lot of CB caps. Had a backstop-a box filled with newspapers.
One time I fired a few magazines of 45ACPs, another time 9MMs. For ventilation, open the windows and the cellar door, once of twice put a fan in the window.
It would be a good idea to have a shooting partner listen outside while you pop a few, see what they sound like. Also play the radio or TV.

captain awesome

June 28, 2012, 02:35 AM

I have wanted to do this for a long time. I have a whole plan in place weather I have a basement or not, it should be easily doable and fairly inexpensive.

Dig a trench 4-5 feet deep 4 feet wide to your desired range length.
dig a small corner at the end of it. and a wider larger end for you to shoot from.
Pour concrete along the base and sides and top.
at the corner end, is where the ventilation will be.get some old mufflers from a junk yard or something and pipe them out to the side set at such an angle so ricochets of the back so wont reach it.
Instal a ventilation fan so the air is always being moved down range.
I am going to get AR500 steel plates and angle it downward in a trap so I can reclaim my lead bullets since I cast my own.
Run a cable and pulleys across the top so you don't have to crawl back an forth each time you want a new target up.
I will probably also recess some lights in the end to light up the target.
I plan on making a small addition to the side of my house leading down to it and having my reloading room down there too, but that is not important .
you can get fancy and put sound deadening stuff in and the like but it would only be for your own enjoyment.
Those are the basics for my plan anyway.

pockets

June 28, 2012, 08:03 AM

Dig a trench 4-5 feet deep 4 feet wide to your desired range length.
I recall reading an article in the early 1960's (probably in Popular Mechanics) that had a cool design for a basement shooting range. They did just that; dug a trench.
A trench was dug from the basement wall out into the back yard.
At the end of the trench, they built a small cement block well the same depth as the trench. The well had a removable cover for access.
They laid 2-foot diameter drainage tile from the basement to the block 'well', then covered the tile over with dirt and sod.
The tile extended into the basement wall as a shooting station.
Then a 'clothesline' was run from the basement to a pulley system in the block 'well'.
A target were hung on the line and run out to the block well.
It kind of functioned like a giant suppressor....the muzzle being inside the end of the drainage tile.

I still have a different late-1950's Popular Mechanics article in PDF form. It's for building a classic 'shooting gallery' for airguns. One of these days I will set aside enough time to build one.

.

Mike OTDP

June 28, 2012, 02:16 PM

This is where a good match-grade air rifle or air pistol comes in handy. Combine it with a good pellet trap, and you can shoot in your house with minimal fuss.

Lost Sheep

June 29, 2012, 01:17 AM

(and with a nod to Pockets, too)I have wanted to do this for a long time. I have a whole plan in place weather I have a basement or not, it should be easily doable and fairly inexpensive.

Dig a trench 4-5 feet deep 4 feet wide to your desired range length.
dig a small corner at the end of it. and a wider larger end for you to shoot from.
Pour concrete along the base and sides and top.
at the corner end, is where the ventilation will be.get some old mufflers from a junk yard or something and pipe them out to the side set at such an angle so ricochets of the back so wont reach it.
Instal a ventilation fan so the air is always being moved down range.
I am going to get AR500 steel plates and angle it downward in a trap so I can reclaim my lead bullets since I cast my own.
Run a cable and pulleys across the top so you don't have to crawl back an forth each time you want a new target up.
I will probably also recess some lights in the end to light up the target.
I plan on making a small addition to the side of my house leading down to it and having my reloading room down there too, but that is not important .
you can get fancy and put sound deadening stuff in and the like but it would only be for your own enjoyment.
Those are the basics for my plan anyway.
I was with a team that built a machine gun range at Seymour Johnson Air Base. In order to keep the bullets within a limited downrange impact zone, we installed concrete culverts 5' diameter if I remember correctly. With the guns mounted on tripods, it was easy to be sure they could not send a bullet over the top of the berm downrange or to either side.

There are also a variety of bullet traps designed for indoor ranges of all sizes. Just google the phrase.

The mufflers and fans at the exit end is a good idea, providing air flow one way downrange.

It is possible (in extreme climates) to arrange for incoming air from the outside to come up a parallel duct which would allow some heat transfer from the warm air to the cool air.

I would hate to try to retrofit a house, but if you are building a new home or extending a foundation for an addition it might be worthwhile.

Lost Sheep

Certaindeaf

June 29, 2012, 01:44 AM

This little piggy went wii wii wii, all the way home!

Not really.. I wish.

gym

June 30, 2012, 09:05 PM

My uncle who passed 5 years ago, did it for 30 years with no problems, and he was on the same block as the chief of police. They were buddies, both collectors and built many guns together.

Owen Sparks

June 30, 2012, 11:25 PM

The sound of a gunshot after it passes through an exterior wall loses the familiar CRACK it would have in open air. Case in point: I was once visiting next door to an apartment where a neighbor had a gun accident. He had a ND in his living room with a .38 Special revolver and came over to see if we were all right. Now I was a competitive shooter at the time and had literally fired thousands of rounds. Even though I was standing probably no more than 10 or 12 feet away when the gun fired but I did not recognize the sound. I heard it all right, but it sounded just like a kid had bounced a basketball of the wall or something as it made a muffled WHUMP. I never would have thought twice about it had the wide eyed neighbor not come pounding on the door in a near panic thinking the bullet might have passed through the wall and hit somebody. We helped him search and never did find a bullet hole. We guessed that it might have been stopped by his Couch. We never thought to involve the police.

Slotback

July 1, 2012, 01:03 PM

Regardless of the logistics involved in such a build, it would be nice to just go down to the basement to shoot.

BLACKHAWKNJ

July 1, 2012, 06:43 PM

Perusing the Web, I saw plans for a home-built snail bullet trap.

Owen Sparks

July 1, 2012, 06:54 PM

If you could afford an underground shooting tunnel made from 3' drainage pipe it would be very easy to ventilate simply by putting a fan at the other end. It would strictly be a bench rest set-up though. One of the big ammo companies has a 100 yard long underground testing tunnel like this. It might be Speer.

gym

July 1, 2012, 08:03 PM

If you have a basement, "not like Fl",like in the North East. and a solid brick house, on a good half acre or more. It's almost impossible if you put sound absorbing "egg containers" or carpet, on the walls.We would go downstairs on Christmass and Thanksgiving, and shoot while my 6 aunts were yapping upstairs and no one ever heard a thing even in the house. It was a good 20 ft below the ground floor. We stuck to 38's and lower caliber rounds wadcutters that my uncle would reload just for the house.

Dr_B

July 1, 2012, 08:10 PM

I once knew a guy who had a small shooting range for .22 lr in his basement... in Washington DC. In my little town here in Idaho, there is a house in the older area of town that once housed a range in its basement as well. Although that may have been in the early 1900's. Ventilate and don't make noise the neighbors can hear.

oneounceload

July 1, 2012, 08:58 PM

A friend, when building his huge home, built an underground range that is 50 yards long and made from 6' diameter galvanized corrugated pipe; concrete walkway to the end, fan, etc. shooting end is also the reloading room - when he shoots you can clearly hear the gunshots above ground (and he is on 10 acres) as that pipe magnifies the sound tremendously. There are lights all the way down, motorized target retrieval system, etc.

It was on the house plans as a storm shelter and wine cellar

SharpsDressedMan

July 1, 2012, 09:14 PM

I believe that a huge "silencer unit" could be built from a 55 gal drum, with baffles & baffling material, with constricted holes fore and aft, that would greatly reduce the weapon firing through it. This would not be attached to the gun, but mounted just ahead of the shooting position, with the muzzle of the gun sighted through it. Along with some external soundproofing, this would eliminate the high noise associated above with a steel culvert or pipe. Also, a fan/exhaust could be added to the drum to immediately suck the smoke from the shot fired, and channel it outside the house with dryer vent type hose or pipe, preferably out the roof, where any sound will be dissipated.

Lost Sheep

July 2, 2012, 03:20 AM

I believe that a huge "silencer unit" could be built from a 55 gal drum, with baffles & baffling material, with constricted holes fore and aft, that would greatly reduce the weapon firing through it. This would not be attached to the gun, but mounted just ahead of the shooting position, with the muzzle of the gun sighted through it.
Yeah, I saw a picture of a muffler made of a half-dozen tires arranged in a row. Stick the rifle muzzle into the center of the row and fire away.This was for an above-ground range, but would work as well underground.

Lost Sheep

pockets

July 2, 2012, 11:06 AM

I must admit to having a 'silent pellet trap' in my basement.
https://www.google.com/search?q=silent+pellet+trap&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=V7fxT4D_A-bC2wXhm_ylAg&ved=0CGMQsAQ&biw=1272&bih=212
Built it like 14 years ago from an online plan. It catches pellets/bullets in 'duct seal' putty (heavy clay-based putty for sealing outdoor conduit entry). Since I built my trap for use with PCP air rifles, it will easily and quietly stop things up to 50-60 foot pounds. Does very well with low-power .22 CB (30fpe), .22 Colibri (3fpe), and .22 Super Colibri (5fpe) powder-less cartridges. A Colibri is silent from pistol barrels 6" or longer and Super Colibri is silent in rifle barrels. Just keep the bore clean if it's tight or over 22" long...sometimes one will get stuck in tight or dirty bores.
It is fun to be able to shoot most of my .22's that way.
I also load a primed empty .25acp cartridge with .25 caliber airgun pellets for playing with some of my .25acp pocket pistols...sort of a '.25acp Colibri'.

Matthew Courtney

July 3, 2012, 09:04 PM

The biggest cost in ventalation systems is heating and cooling the replacement air coming in to replace the air being pumped out. Two or three 150-250 cfm hepa filter units will scrub the air sufficiently to use two or three pistol firing points inside a 30 ft basement pistol range.

http://www.allergytech.com/honeywell_50250.htm

Dave P.

July 3, 2012, 10:35 PM

There was a shop local to me called Cougar & Hunter that had a 100 yard underground
tunnel range. I spent many hours in it, I'd sight rifles for them in exchange they would
let me work on my own loading projects. It had a small room about 8ft square with
room for the shooting bench and not much else. Had about a 18in square opening
into a 30-36 in tunnel. Far end was lit and had target paper on a big roll with a motor
drive controlled at the shooting bench.
You could hear each shot echo down the pipe several times. As long as the muzzle
was in the hole it was pretty quiet in the shop.
I had a Contender in 30-30 and 35 Remington that due to bench design would have
to be fired without the muzzle in the tunnel.....it was real load it the room!
Dave

hemiram

July 3, 2012, 11:22 PM

My neighbor had a 50' one in his basement.It was like a tornado in there when the venting was on. It sounded like a car with a sub upstairs. In the basement itself, it was VERY loud, and he always wore plugs and muffs both. I shot there a lot just before he died and I had the doctor check my lead level and it was ok. When the new owner bought the house, he totally remodeled the basement, putting in a home theatre where the shooting range was.

FROGO207

July 4, 2012, 08:35 AM

I have a couple of friends that had those .22 bullet traps you could set on a bench and fire into in their cellars while growing up. Shooting was 25 to 30 feet with a pistol or revolver usually. The noise was loud but with the houses a fair amount away the neighbors never complained. Back then we just shot a box and left the area to do something else when we ran out of ammo, never worried about the lead in the air.:eek: We all survived it and still all have a good time target shooting these days but not together having moved off to other remote areas. One of the guys would get his mom to run him to the store to buy a box of .22 LR. She would wait for him in the car while he (15years old) would go in and buy them.:) Try that now.:(

Swampman

July 4, 2012, 11:31 PM

What's a basement?

Seriously, I really don't know much about them, but it seems to me that if you used lead free primers and fully encapsulated bullets the need for ventilation or filtration would be greatly reduced. Prices on lead free primers have dropped a lot since Tula started importing them and Hornady HAP bullets aren't prohibitively expensive. The only other thing you might need is a suppressor, which unfortunately, ain't cheap.

BLACKHAWKNJ

July 5, 2012, 12:24 AM

Having been a mostly indoor shooter I can testify to the importance of proper ventilation.

Randy in Arizona

July 9, 2012, 12:36 AM

The nicest basement setup I have ever seen had a closed circuit TV & camera so that you could see the target as if it was about 30 inches from you. Sweet!
Plus the man made some of the best suppressors on the market. He still does!

397

Vern Humphrey

July 9, 2012, 03:58 PM

Speer sells both plastic cartridge cases and rubber bullets (which are re-usable.) The plastic cases don't offer good support, so I use brass cases with the flash hole drilled out. I shoot at a cardboard box filled with newspaper and "mine" the shredded paper to get my bullets back.

ColdDayInHell

July 11, 2012, 03:24 PM

I shoot CB long's and Super Colibri .22's in my basement with ventilation and 35 feet of room and a great home-made backstop. I train with my MKII and 10/22 and it's a great, safe basement range. People may disagree but the ventilation is sufficient enough for low velocity 22's and I really don't shoot that many.

Vern Humphrey

July 11, 2012, 04:50 PM

I open the outside door to my basement and have a fan blowing air out -- that does all I need.

Kynoch

July 11, 2012, 05:12 PM

Vaporized lead compounds everywhere. Yummy.
Solid lead bullets do not "vaporize." A well designed backstop can make the lead easy to harvest for smelting.

Venting is not a big deal. My basement is well sealed from my house. When shooting I turn-on a large exhausting squirrel cage fan ducted to the outside end of the basement on the target end of the basement while opening a small window on the opposite end of the basement. I get a subtle laminar flow through the entire basement, as if it's one large plenum. One can definitely feel the negative pressure when opening the upstairs door. I never calculated the number of air changes per hour with this set-up but it's tremendous. Perhaps 20 changes/hour?

I suppose one could argue this would not work well outside of a mild climate or that the fan sucks up a lot of electricity or that it's not exactly silent. While we only shoot .22's, the noise to the outside is a non-issue.

Vern Humphrey

July 11, 2012, 05:19 PM

The lead in the air at shooting ranges is from the priming compound, not the bullets impacting the backstop.

SharpsDressedMan

July 11, 2012, 06:21 PM

Some of the lead in the air near the shooter can come from the base of a lead bullet being burned off. Not applicable to bullets that have copper on the base of the bullet (totally clad, or jacked HP's, etc).

Lost Sheep

July 12, 2012, 12:41 AM

Speer sells both plastic cartridge cases and rubber bullets (which are re-usable.) The plastic cases don't offer good support, so I use brass cases with the flash hole drilled out. I shoot at a cardboard box filled with newspaper and "mine" the shredded paper to get my bullets back.
I cut up a truck tire's inner tube and hung three layers (the first two cut into 2" strips). The first two "curtains" slowed the plastic bullets. The last curtain kept the bullets inside the cardboard box. None of my plastic bullets were ever deformed by impact and the rubber curtains were none the worse for wear, either.

I recommend it to avoid having to deal with a bunch of shredded paper.

Lost Sheep

Rollis R. Karvellis

July 12, 2012, 02:47 AM

I, use three bankers boxes filled with rubber mulch. It will stop 240 gn .44 mag's @ 10 yard's with out any trouble.

Vern Humphrey

July 12, 2012, 10:43 AM

I cut up a truck tire's inner tube and hung three layers (the first two cut into 2" strips). The first two "curtains" slowed the plastic bullets. The last curtain kept the bullets inside the cardboard box. None of my plastic bullets were ever deformed by impact and the rubber curtains were none the worse for wear, either.

I'll definitely try that -- or something like it, since inner tubes are in short supply around here.

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